The Renovation

Christmas 2024 is now behind us and we’ll be celebrating New Year’s Day 2025 in a couple of days. Every year the Brotnov home, we commit to accomplishing the worldwide tradition of watching the Ball drop in Time’s Square on New Year’s Eve and kissing my lovely bride to usher in 2025; but equally likely is that one or both of us fall victim to some sweet carbohydrate filled treats and in a sleepy stupor throw in the towel before 11,  ending the night by saying the predicable “See you next year!” before turning in and waking up in the New Year. But sometimes we do make it to midnight and see the fireworks and confetti and see the chiron scroll at the bottom of the screen, “January 1, 202-whatever”. And like you probably do, I wonder to myself at some point before I close my eyes: What will this New Year hold for me? For us? Will it be a year filled with wonderful opportunities? Or will it be like 2020, a year filled with chaos and uncertainty? A year from now, looking back on 2025, what will I be thinking and feeling about it? What did I do well? What regrets will I have? Did I use my time well?

Maybe it’s just me that thinks things like these, but you probably think at least some of this. You likely have crafted your New Year’s Resolutions to reset yourself and vow to improve some area of your life that needs a tune-up. But maybe, like me, there’s a part of you that wonders if anything within you is really going to change, or in your family, or in our country, or in our tumultuous world. Perhaps you agree with the Preacher, King Solomon in the beginning of the book of Ecclesiastes- 

Vanity of vanities, says the Preacher,  vanity of vanities! All is vanity.   3  What does man gain by all the toil at which he toils under the sun?   4  A generation goes, and a generation comes,  but the earth remains forever.   5  The sun rises, and the sun goes down,  and hastens to the place where it rises… 8  All things are full of weariness;  a man cannot utter it;  the eye is not satisfied with seeing,  nor the ear filled with hearing.   9  What has been is what will be,  and what has been done is what will be done,  and there is nothing new under the sun.   10  Is there a thing of which it is said,  “See, this is new”?    It has been already in the ages before us.   11  There is no remembrance of former things,  nor will there be any remembrance of later things yet to be among those who come after. Ec 1:2–11.

• Is he right? Is there nothing new under the sun? Is life an endless series of vain cycles?
• In a sense, yes, he is right. Under the Sun, as he calls it, the world is under the Curse of Original Sin, and of itself is full of promises that aren’t fulfilled, or promises that are fulfilled but are unsatisfying and which leave us empty. The world under the Sun is ultimately full of weariness, dissatisfaction, and futility; nothing new at all, but the same old same old.
• I wonder if that’s your experience, particularly for those of us who’ve been under the sun for a few decades now (or over half a century!) You’ve probably seen a lot that discourages you. Fathers and mothers, maybe children; friends, politicians, leaders, co-workers; People who’ve let you down. And you’ve seen you let yourself and others down too, which is probably even worse, because you know you could’ve done better - and should’ve - but didn’t. You know the sting of failure after failure, the great weight of sin that pulls you down, time after time. Maybe you’re listening to the recording of this sermon because you couldn’t bring yourself to go through this ritual again of coming to worship God on the final day of the year and knowing that you’re going to disappoint and be disappointed, and you say with the apostle Paul in Romans 7:21–24 “So I find it to be a law that when I want to do right, evil lies close at hand. For I delight in the law of God, in my inner being, but I see in my members another law waging war against the law of my mind and making me captive to the law of sin that dwells in my members. Wretched man that I am! Who will deliver me from this body of death?”
• But I’m here to tell you today that there is good news for you - for all of us who suffer and who sin, for all of us in Christ who live under the Sun - and it comes to us from the end of the Bible in the book of Revelation 21:1-5 . Let’s read verses 1-5 to get a bit of context, but we will be laser-focusing on a phrase in verse 5 in particular. Please open your Bibles or devices  now to Revelation Chapter 21. This is God’s word:

Text

Revelation 21:1–5 ESV

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and the sea was no more. And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

And he who was seated on the throne said, “Behold, I am making all things new.” Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

• Let’s pray that we will be able to hear the encouragement that God has for us here: *Prayer*
• Revelation 21:1–5 occurs at the climactic conclusion of the biblical narrative. The vision reveals the ultimate fulfillment of God’s redemptive purposes and culminates in the restoration of creation and the perfect communion between God and humanity. This passage underscores the hope that history moves toward the triumph of Christ’s kingdom, expressed not only spiritually in the church but also visibly in the new creation.
• Also, a quick note about the order of the outline: Throughout church history, pastors and theologians often took a verse, or even part of a verse and squeezed it dry of all the gospel truth it contained. Although they often wrote entire sermon series and even books with this approach, I don’t have the time to go that far, but I’m taking the same approach and laser-focusing on each word or phrase. I think you’ll be surprised about how much is here. Also, I’m focusing only on only seven words in the verse,”Behold, I am making all things new,” but I’ll briefly touch on the surrounding text.
• We’ll start with the first word, “Behold”.

Behold,

• Behold is from the Greek Idou, and is a demonstrative particle; which just means ‘Look! See! Pay attention! Look over here! Something important is happening here!’ Def. look!, suddenly, now; here, there; this particle is used to enliven a Hebrew narrative style, by marking the change of a scene, or emphasize some detail or idea. It’s often used when a thing is specified which is unexpected yet sure.
  
  
• Notice first, though, who is issuing this command; and it is a command, not a suggestion. The one seated on the throne is commanding the reader’s attention. G.K. Beal’s Commentary on Revelation simply says,” The speaker here is undoubtedly God.”
• So God is telling us to get ready; something very important and unexpected is about to happen.
• When God tells us to pay attention, pay attention!
• What is he calling us to pay attention to? Let’s look at the next phrase, “I am making”.

I am making

• There are at least two things to examine here: (1) who is the one making, (2) when it is being made.
• We already saw that the one who says,” Behold” is God himself, who is the one acting, but what does that say to us about what’s being done? It means it will be done! Look at what the end of this verse tells us about this: Revelation 21:5 “ Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” So it’s going to happen. Take it to the bank. In a crazy world filled with uncertainty, God is the Covenant-keeping King who can and will make it happen, and he will do it flawlessly and right on time, every time. But when?
• An honest and thinking person could object at this point: “Why isn’t everything new now? What is God waiting for? When will this occur? If the Father and Christ and the Holy Spirit are making all things new, why aren’t they new right now? What is he waiting for?”
• A: God is doing it, right now, but isn’t yet finished. We could give many examples in scripture, but what about the life of Jesus Christ himself? Did he parachute in from heaven as a fully grown man and die on the cross? No! Why not skip the cross and go straight to the end without the agony of the Atonement? Didn’t Satan himself try to tempt Jesus in the wilderness to skip this process right from the beginning of his earthly ministry? But there could be no skipping. The Gospels all show that Christ had first to be born, then learn wisdom while keeping the Law perfectly, then minister to Israel and the Gentiles, then die for atonement of sins, then be buried, then resurrected, then rise, then ascend. It had to happen in that order, the plan of salvation that God planned even before creation. Romans 11:33 assures us “Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his judgments and how inscrutable his ways!” Since God is perfect in all his ways, there was no other way, and it took 33 years for Christ to accomplish.
• History is the same. We’re somewhere in the middle of the already and the not yet, and it is unfolding precisely how God in his omniscient wisdom prescribes. Isaiah 55:8–9 reminds us “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, declares the Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
• So when is God doing this? Before we fully answer this here in Revelation 21, let’s take a step back into a parallel passage, Isaiah 65:17. It’s very important to understand that the book of Revelation is deeply rooted in the Old Testament, with as much as 70% of its verses containing allusions, echoes, or direct references to the Old Testament, and Isaiah 65:17 is no exception:

Isaiah 65:17 (ESV)

“For behold, I create new heavens

and a new earth,

and the former things shall not be remembered

or come into mind.

• Q: Here we find God promising to do what? A: Create a new heavens and a new earth, 500 years before Christ. I argue that this new creation isn’t relegated only to some future time, although there certainly is a coming time with Christ will return again and complete the renovation all of creation.
• The phrase “am making” is in the present continuous tense (also called present progressive). It indicates an action that is happening right now or is ongoing in the present. But if we’re paying attention, this should be somewhat confusing!
• For another thing, it’s hard to tell exactly when John is being told this. John has either been brought into a timeless place, Heaven itself, or is caught up in a vision that actually started all the way back in Chapter 1. John tells us there that he was Revelation 1:10–11 “ ..in the Spirit on the Lord’s day, and I heard behind me a loud voice like a trumpet saying, “Write what you see in a book and send it to the seven churches” ..and then lists them. As he turns to look, he is transported suddenly into the middle of some kind of a mysterious vision.
• From the beginning of the book, there is a sense in which Revelation, because of the unusual genre and the way in which it is written, is ambiguous about time throughout most of the book. This is recorded by John for us, to see the future in our present, and in John’s past. That ought to make you a bit dizzy! John is told in his present (our past) about his future (our present) and also about events that are future to both John and to us.To keep a complicated idea simple, there is a sense in which this phrase “I am making” is timeless, constantly and continuously happening.
• What incredible news! Christ has made, is making, and will make all things new for his glory and for the benefit of the Church throughout all ages! Q: When will he do these things?
• A: All the time. He did it before, he’s doing it right now at this very moment, he’s doing it tomorrow, and next week, and next year, until the climactic conclusion at the end of time in Revelation 22. So now that we know when God will do this, let’s shift our attention to the scope of this renovation.

all things

• What does this mean, “All things”? Q: What things? A: All things, everything is what this means.
• But you should now say, what kinds of things are included in All Things?
• At least these 4: (1)Christ himself (2) an individual believer’s ‘ontological’ transformation in Christ 2 Corinthians 5:17 , (3) the entire community of Christian believers (the Church) , and (4) the end-time cosmological renewal and restoration.
• Christ himself was made new. After the resurrection, he was transformed into a new kind of being; a resurrected God-man. Nothing like him had ever been seen because he was (and still is) completely unique.
• Like their representative Jesus, the believer is made new as well. Do you know this about yourself? Do you know this about the believers in this room? When the believer, you , is converted, your dead soul is regenerated. You are made new. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” Colossians 1:13–14 “He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”
• Like you, the entire Church is being made new: Ephesians 5:25–27 “Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, so that he might present the church to himself in splendor, without spot or wrinkle or any such thing, that she might be holy and without blemish.”

new

• What does the text mean by ‘New’ exactly?
• new creation/ Among the biblical writers, only Paul uses the exact phrase “new creation” (καινὴ κτίσις, kainē ktisis) (2 Cor 5:17; Gal 6:15). A related expression, “new human/humanity” or “new man/self” (καινὸς ἄνθρωπον, kainos anthrōpon), appears in Eph 2:15; 4:23–24; Col 3:9–10.
• This reflects the fulfillment of Isaiah 65:17
• “For behold, I create new heavens and a new earth, and the former things shall not be remembered or come into mind.”
• and 2 Peter 3:13
• “But according to his promise we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth in which righteousness dwells.”
• The “new” here (Greek: kainos) indicates not an entirely new creation ex nihilo but a renewal or transformation of the current creation—a liberation from the curse of sin (Romans 8:21 .
  
  

Romans 8:21 ESV

that the creation itself will be set free from its bondage to corruption and obtain the freedom of the glory of the children of God.

• We said earlier that Christ was made new. This is the key to the new creation, because he set the pattern for everything else. Even in the pre-incarnate Christ, the theophanies of the Second person of the Trinity that appeared to Abraham and Jacob, Joshua and Gideon, and others were not like the risen Christ. In these appearances, the Son was fully Divine and appeared as a man, but wasn’t truly man. His appearing as a Man was to accommodate whomever he appeared to. think about it; at other times he appeared as a burning bush, a rock, a torch, and other inanimate and non-humanoid shapes.
• But in the resurrection we have not only one who is truly God and truly Man, but resurrected Man. He possesses a new kind of body, one that is human, yet not at the same time; it’s a glorified body. Jesus can eat fish and yet walk through solid objects. He can levitate into thin air and yet he has vestiges of his crucifixion wounds, such that Thomas the Apostle can put his finger into Christs’s side without damaging or causing him pain.
• The risen Christ is an entirely new kind of person; not just physically, but relationally. What he accomplished in his incarnation was to fulfill the whole Law perfectly so that as our perfect high priest, he could finally do what the saints had longed for since Adam and Eve after the Fall; atone for us perfectly. Christ  the atonement; he had to suffer and die and be raised to be made ready to accomplish this. There were no shortcuts.
• The same for you! You were once suffering and lost in sin before your conversion. Maybe a lot, maybe a little; maybe you can vividly remember it as an adult, like me, or maybe you can’t remember it at all, like a child who has never known any life but one inside of a Christian family, but we all suffer from sin, and the growth in holiness after conversion is also painful. Who here doesn’t know that? Which among you hasn’t experienced the pain of killing your precious sins? Of leaving an old life, or family, or friends, or a substance, or a way of life that was no longer compatible with living as a sanctified follower of Christ?
• What’s my point about all this? Like Christ, you are being made new, and as he suffered, you suffer. But like him, you are both transformed into a new person -a new Humanity- at conversion, but you are continually being transformed; this is what we call progressive sanctification. Your position in Christ is fully completed; you are fully justified in his sight, brand new in this sense. And in another sense you are being made new, day by day, by all the means of grace that Christ has given us; his Word read, studied and preached; prayer, corporate worship and fellowship, the sacraments of baptism and communion, church discipline. Even as you’re listening to this admittedly amateur sermon, you’re being made new, right at this very moment.
• John Piper, in “Fifty Reasons Why Jesus Came to Die” says it like this,” Being sanctified means that we are [both] imperfect and in process. We are becoming holy - but are not yet fully holy. And it is precisely these-and only these-who are already perfected..The good news is that being on the way is proof that we have arrived.”
• You might object that is doesn’t feel like you’re being made new. You’re right, it probably doesn’t. It may even feel at times like you’re getting worse, not better!
• Conclusion:
• Progressive Triumph:
• Revelation 21:1–5 is the ultimate goal toward which history is moving. The kingdom of God grows through the church’s mission, transforming societies and cultures, until Christ’s return consummates this renewal.
• The “new heavens and new earth” reflect not a total replacement of creation but its fulfillment and transformation, realized after the gospel has advanced through all nations.
• Theological Implications:
• Christ’s redemptive work, applied in history, leads to the flourishing of humanity in submission to God.
• The ultimate victory of the church is celebrated, with every aspect of creation brought into conformity with God’s will.

Application

Application for Believers

1. Mission of the Church: The vision fuels the church’s mission, calling believers to participate in the kingdom’s advancement through gospel proclamation and cultural renewal.

• We live in between the bookends of the New Covenant and the New Heavens and Earth, and since God has been and is now making all things new, including the Church collectively, and you in particular, every moment of your life is significant and bursting with meaning and purpose. If you are in Christ, you are a child of the King, and you are included in this. So go out and be salt and light to the world, knowing how it will end.

1. When we began, I referenced Ecclesiastes, that Solomon told us that all under the sun is vain and empty. And for the unbeliever, this is the best it will get here. While verse 5 is a bright hope for the Christian, verses 1-7 are the best news possible, Revelation 21:8 is the worst news those apart from Christ could hear:

Revelation 21:8 ESV

But as for the cowardly, the faithless, the detestable, as for murderers, the sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars, their portion will be in the lake that burns with fire and sulfur, which is the second death.”

• The one seated on the throne is a King, and those under his care need for nothing; those who oppose him are utterly without protection and hope. If you do not know this King, I urge you: lay down your rebellion and accept his invitation to surrender. Do it today! Make the end of 2024 the year that all things become new for you!
• This verse ends with these words: “Also he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.” The end of 2024 has ended more strangely than it began: Political scandals galore, successful and unsuccessful assasination attempts, a real-life Tony Stark is best friends with the incoming President, and mystery drones over New Jersey. Worst of all, we live in an age where information is harder to trust about these strange occurrences than it’s ever been. We live in a world where AI can fake images, text and even videos very convincingly. Who can you trust? You can trust this King whose words are trustworthy and true. You can trust him here in Revelation 21 and you can trust him everywhere else in Scripture. His word is sufficient, and His word is making all things new.
• Hope in Suffering: I’ll end with this. You may wonder why this new creation is so difficult. So painful. Romans 8: 22-23 tells us:
  
  

Romans 8:22–23 ESV

For we know that the whole creation has been groaning together in the pains of childbirth until now. And not only the creation, but we ourselves, who have the firstfruits of the Spirit, groan inwardly as we wait eagerly for adoption as sons, the redemption of our bodies.

Why does God make this so painful? Why is your life as a believer so hard? Will the New Year be this hard? Harder?

Take comfort from these words from C.S. Lewis:

“Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on: you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make sense. What on earth is He up to?

The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—[creating] a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, [building] towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.”

So take heart, Christian. God is completing his great Renovation!  Both you and the whole universe are his home. And one day the last coat of paint will go on, the work will be complete, and both you and the world will be transformed and made brand new. Revelation 21: 2-4

Revelation 21:2–4 ESV

And I saw the holy city, new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride adorned for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man. He will dwell with them, and they will be his people, and God himself will be with them as their God. He will wipe away every tear from their eyes, and death shall be no more, neither shall there be mourning, nor crying, nor pain anymore, for the former things have passed away.”

Let’s pray:

O LOVE BEYOND COMPARE,

You are good when You give,

and when You take away.

You are good when the sun shines on us,

and when darkness settles over our lives.

 

You loved us before the foundation of the world,

and in love, You came to redeem our souls.

You still love us,

despite our stubborn hearts, our ingratitude, our doubt.

 

Your goodness has carried us through another year—

guiding us through winding paths,

turning setbacks into progress,

and steadying us when we faltered.

 

Your goodness will guide us in the year ahead.

We raise our sails and lift our anchors,

trusting You, the faithful Pilot of our future,

just as You’ve been the Shepherd of our past.

 

We thank You for veiling our eyes to what lies ahead.

If storms of tribulation await us,

we trust You will walk with us through them.

If we must face the winds of persecution or temptation,

we will not be overcome.

 

If death comes for us,

we will see Your face that much sooner.

If our journey ends in pain,

grant us the grace to keep our faith strong.

If we are set aside from the work we love,

we make no demands—only that You be glorified in us.

 

In comfort or trial,

use us as vessels,

always ready, always Yours.

We pray this in the precious name of Jesus our Rock, Amen.